Renegade Orchestra at the London Nelson Community Center

The Renegade Orchestra is the bay area’s most rock and roll symphony. Is it a rock band? Is it an orchestra? Who knows? But it’s definitely the best of both worlds. The pure unbridled fury of some of the bay area’s top orchestra players unleashed on classic rock songs backed up by a hard-hitting rhythm section.

For the 2025 - 2026 season, the Renegade Orchestra will present a revolving set of music all based on the sounds of San Francisco…and the Bay Area, featuring pieces written by famous Bay Area rock bands or even just recorded in the Bay Area. These are classic tunes reimagined like Jefferson Airplane’s Somebody to Love, It’s a Beautiful Day’s White Bird, and even some orchestral punk by the Dead Kennedys.

At this show, the Renegade Orchestra will present a comfortable, but lively show featuring around 15 musicians, all committed to having a relaxed and rocking time. If there is something you hate about orchestra concerts, this is the opposite.

We've never brought the Renegade Orchestra to Santa Cruz before, so this will be a rare treat to play on the coast.

The London Nelson Community Center is a fun, seated theater named after London Nelson who had an amazing life surviving slavery building up a business and then leaving his estate to Santa Cruz.

Tickets are $30 in advance, $35 at the door. Tickets available at the door.

Always chairs provided.

Doors open at 6:30 pm

From the folks who brought you Dirty Cello, the Death and Taxes Swing Band, and the San Francisco Yiddish Combo.

Renegade Orchestra - The Beauty of a Symphony, the Soul of a Rock Band

Welcome to the Renegade Orchestra - it’s time to throw out all the old conventions of a quiet, sleepy, stuffy show of musicians locked in straight jackets of tradition.

Clap your hands, tap your feet, and yell all you want - the Renegade Orchestra embraces the virtuosic skills of top bay area musicians and turns them loose on songs orchestras have never or maybe shouldn’t do. No sleepy pop songs, no overly-lush jazz standards, but the pure unbridled fury of what an orchestra can truly do

“Classical Rebels.” The Bohemian

“The Renegade Orchestra would rather tackle Hendrix than Handel.” Mercury News

"If there’s one piece of advice I would give to anyone interested in seeing this group perform, it would be to expect the unexpected, or better yet, leave your expectations at the door and go in prepared for a ride. If there’s one thing that’s for certain, it’s that this writer will be catching them again the next time they perform in town." Napa Valley Register

“...Under the baton of co-founder, guitarist and conductor Jason Eckl, [the Renegade Orchestra] turn Nina Simone’s “Sinnerman” into a shimmering string-centric odyssey, capture the classic helter-skelter vibe in Paul McCartney’s and John Lennon’s “Helter Skelter,” find the funk in “What’d I Say” by Ray Charles and crash with vibratory verve through Jimi Hendrix’s “Purple Haze.” East Bay Express

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